Terms of Service
Effective October 3, 2026
These terms are an agreement between you and Tom Gruner, the individual who operates Briefly ("Briefly", "we", "us"). They apply to the Briefly app for iOS and Android and to brieflyaudio.com.
You accept these terms when you tap "Agree and continue" while setting up your Briefly account, whether you sign up with Apple, Google or your email address, or when we ask you to accept an updated version. The sign-up screens and the acceptance screen link to them. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use information; it is a notice, not part of what you agree to here. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not create an account or use Briefly.
Briefly is in beta
Briefly is an early version that is still being built and tested. Features may change, be interrupted or be removed, and stories may occasionally be unavailable. Briefly is currently free. If we introduce paid features, we will explain the price and terms before you are asked to pay, and nothing will be charged without your agreement.
Who can use Briefly
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use Briefly. By creating an account, you confirm that you are. You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping access to your sign-in method secure.
About the content
Briefly's stories come from articles published by public agencies, research institutions and other publishers whose material we are permitted to use. Each story names its source.
Shorts are condensed versions of those articles written with the help of AI, and narration may be produced with synthetic voices. We work to keep Shorts faithful to the original, but a summary can leave out detail or contain mistakes. For context, see the original article, and verify anything important independently before you rely on it.
Nothing in Briefly is medical, health, financial, legal or other professional advice. Talk to a qualified professional about decisions that affect your health, money or legal position.
Briefly is independent. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the organizations whose articles it features, and their names are used only to identify the source of a story.
If you spot a factual error, or you believe a story uses material without permission, email info@brieflyaudio.com with a link to the story or its title, and tell us what is wrong.
How you may use Briefly
We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right to use the Briefly service for your own, non-commercial listening. This includes:
- ordinary playback, including the audio the app stores on your device so stories start quickly;
- sharing stories through the sharing features Briefly provides;
- any use that the law, or the license of the original content, allows.
You agree not to:
- extract Briefly's Shorts or narrations in bulk, or redistribute or resell them as a collection, feed or service;
- scrape, crawl or use automated means to access the app or its services;
- interfere with, overload or try to gain unauthorized access to Briefly or other users' accounts;
- reverse engineer the app, except where the law permits it despite this restriction;
- use Briefly in any way that breaks the law.
The app stores
Your license to the app itself comes from the app store you downloaded it from: Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement for the App Store, or Google Play's terms. These terms govern your use of the Briefly service and sit alongside that license. If they conflict on the app license, the app store's terms apply. Apple and Google are not responsible for Briefly or its content; contact us for support.
Ownership
The Briefly name and logo, the app, and the service belong to us. We also own or license whatever rights exist in Briefly's Shorts and narrations. Some of that material, including text generated with AI, may not be protected by copyright at all.
The original articles are either in the public domain or belong to their publishers. Presenting an article in Briefly does not make it ours. These terms do not take away any rights you already have in public-domain material or under the license of the original content; they only govern how you use the Briefly service.
If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without any obligation to you.
Ending your use
You can stop using Briefly and delete your account at any time from the You tab in the app. What we delete, and what records remain and for how long, is described in our Privacy Policy. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms or if we need to protect Briefly, its users or others. We may also discontinue Briefly or any part of it. Sections that by their nature should continue, such as those on content, ownership, disclaimers and limitation of liability, survive after your use ends.
Disclaimers
Briefly is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or uninterrupted, error-free operation.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of Briefly or from reliance on its content.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims relating to Briefly, taken together, is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the first claim arose or 50 US dollars.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability, or any right you have, that applicable law does not allow to be limited or excluded.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as Briefly develops. We will post the new version here with its effective date and keep earlier versions available on request. For a material change, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and the change will not take effect until a stated future date. Where a change calls for it, we will ask you to accept the updated terms before you continue using Briefly.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest of these terms remain in effect.
Contact
Tom Gruner, operator of Briefly
info@brieflyaudio.com